Creating, Distributing, and Marketing Instructional Material

by Stan Skrabut

Throughout Wyoming, we have people interested in improving their livelihood.

You are the experts these individuals rely on to get information.

You spend a significant amount of time creating instructional material for distribution.

You want to get your instructional content out to the folks who need it most.

I am going to give ideas for creating and distributing engaging materials.

Let’s spend a few minutes talking about different ways of creating

instructional content.

Have you ever thought about creating a video? A great way to show how to do something.

Camtasia is a tool for editing video, creating screencasts, and narrating PowerPoint to video.

Jing allows you to create short 5 minute screencasts.

CamStudio is similar to Camtasia only that it is free.

Perhaps creating an audio podcast would be a better way to get your message across.

Audacity is a powerful audio recording and editing tool.

You may be also looking for ways to spice up your documents.

PDFCreator is a print driver that will allow you to print any document to a PDF document.

Issuu is great site that allows you to convert a PDF to a flipbook document.

You can even convert your documents to the new Kindle or ebook format.

Once you have the materials, you

need to have a way to distribute it.

Here are some different ways for distributing your newly created videos.

Youtube is king for distributing videos. 150,000 videos uploaded per day.

Create a regular video series to be distributed on iTunes.

Facebook is always a great way to share your videos, check out Dallas Mount’s example.

Here are some different ways to distribute audio podcasts.

iTunes is perhaps the best way to distribute your podcasts.

You can also distribute your podcasts through a Web site supported with RSS feeds.

There are companies who specialize in hosting podcasts, some are free.

Here are some ways to get mileage out of your documents

When you finish presenting a great PowerPoint, share it to the world with Slideshare.

Have you created a great handout and want to share it, put it on Scribd.

You can also post your documents to the Web for future reading.

Now that you have set up your distribution

methods, you need to alert everyone they are available.

I am going to recommend 4 top performers that can be integrated with each other.

Use Twitter to broadcast your message to the world.

Use Facebook to nurture your community of supporters.

Use YouTube to share video content.

Use LinkedIn to develop your professional network.

Create an integrated presence to promote your educational materials.

Scribd, SlideShare, Youtube, and others will send an automatic feed to Twitter.

Display your professional uploads from Scribd, YouTube, and Slideshare to Facebook or LinkedIn

You can also provide links from your Web site to all of your other content material.

Work to increase your network.

Provide links from your various sites to other opportunities to connect with you.

Encourage members to invite friends to be fans of your networking initiatives.

Implementing a social media strategy is a function of all members of your organization.